Hi everyone! I often get asked, “What ever happened to Mazin’ Hamsters?” and “Will you ever bring back Mazin’ Hamsters?”
I will try to answer these and some of your other questions about Mazin’ Hamsters below.
For those that don’t remember it, Mazin’ Hamsters was a fully 3D section in Webkinz World introduced in 2010, which was unlocked when you registered a Feature Code that came with a plush hamster.
Mazin’ Hamsters was unique from the rest of Webkinz World because it was running completely different animation software. While Webkinz World runs on 2D Flash, Mazin’ Hamsters ran on an early version of 3D Unity.
Inside ‘Mazin Hamsters, there were lots of mazes that your hamsters could race around or explore. Completing each maze awarded a trophy!
If you wanted more mazes, you could make your own using the maze building tool. You could even share your mazes with the community and have other players run through them.
Later we added a Hamster Hamlet section with different worlds for your hamsters to explore, along with daily activities like the popular Moolah Mountain!
Unfortunately, the uniqueness of ‘Mazin Hamsters was also its biggest problem. Much like the upcoming discontinuation of Flash by web browsers, the original version of Unity 3D was discontinued as a web plug-in. So, in September of 2015, because we could no longer run the game on the web, ‘Mazin Hamsters was closed.
However, Unity as a game engine has continued to thrive and grow. A new WebGL platform was developed to run Unity on the web, but unfortunately it was not backwards-compatible for those using earlier versions like ‘Mazin Hamsters. The Development and Art teams at Ganz that built ‘Mazin Hamsters would eventually take their collective experience and create a whole new massive online game: Amazing World.
Will ‘Mazin Hamsters ever return? While there aren’t currently any plans to bring it back, with Unity now one of the premier gaming technologies, you never know what the future might bring. Unity continues to be a technology that Ganz uses to develop new projects.
What was YOUR favorite part about ‘Mazin Hamsters? And what would you like me to report on next? Let me know in the comments below.
I loved the hamsters and running the mazes! I had completed all the mazes and had all the trophies! It was fun doing the other parts, too. It really would be AMAZIN’ if they would be brought back! Naturally, I still have Peppermint, my red “Santa” hamster!
I miss the Lagoon music in Mazin Hamsters and I was wondering if you still had the music for it.
Wow, this looked like a lot of fun! I started playing Webkinz after Mazin’ Hamsters closed, so I never got to play.
I loved the Hamster Hamlet section and running down Moolah Mountain every day to collect moolah to buy items for the hamsters. tt was fun to find hidden areas in both of them, especially Moolah Mountain. Sure do miss them.
hope for the future return of mazin hamsters makes my heart happy :)
i miss it terribly , i have 6 hamsters , and was surprised they came to life like my other webkinz…. i miss all of mazin hamsters
I don’t miss the Hamsters BUT, I sure do miss the hundreds of items still not working. What has gone wrong and are they ever going to work again. Seems like no one can or wants to let us know what’s being done to correct all those items. I notice the 2 TV’s in the club house after school room work. Why those and not ours? Will anyone ever answer to this problem? It’s been way too long not to let us know what your plans are. These items were not cheap and I would not have bought them if they did not work.
I didn’t enjoy this game. It made me dizzy and I always got lost like in Treasures of the Crystal Seas. My son however loved both of these games. They didn’t bother him. I am sorry that so many fans will not be able to play their game again but I am glad to hear you have good memories of it.
I’ll tell you what to do Ganz if you’re listening. Release a ‘Signature’ Mazing hamster. Yeah do that. And do it on like the X year anniversary of the game, and re-release a desktop client of the game on the same day. Have the signature be like $70. It’s reasonable compared to sig prices on ebay, and it’s a price that’ll make you money, and lets be real most users are adults and can afford/willl probably pay that price. Just don’t make everyone sad and overprice it.
I have played Webkinz since 2008 but I never tried Mazin’ Hamsters or Amazing World.